Ben Smith, the editor in chief of BuzzFeed News, appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to defend BuzzFeed’s publication of an unverified dossier on Donald Trump. But along the way, Smith allowed himself to be hoodwinked into letting Carlson play the role of unbiased journalist.

Smith did a decent job of explaining why BuzzFeed published the dossier. Among other things, it claimed that Trump had engaged prostitutes to perform “golden showers” on a Russian hotel bed that Barack and Michelle Obama had reportedly slept in. Carlson seemed to accept Smith's argument as legitimate even if he didn't agree.

But Carlson was clearly intent on discrediting BuzzFeed one way or another.

CARLSON: Clearly, BuzzFeed News has a pretty open political agenda masquerading as journalism.

SMITH: Is it open or is it masquerading?

CARLSON: Well, it is open and obvious to those of us who care to pay attention. I think you are hiding behind what appear to be journalistic standards when, in fact, they’re political imperatives.

It’s hard to think of any operation that fits the description of “hiding behind what appear to be journalistic standards when, in fact, they’re political imperatives” than Fox News.

It's almost impossible to believe Smith didn't know this. Yet, astoundingly, Smith did not bring up the hypocrisy.

Later, Carlson kept up a prolonged attack on BuzzFeed for having tried to restrict a certain fellowship to someone of color (before finding out that was illegal). Smith sat there and let Carlson – someone with a longrecordofbigotry – put him on defense about trying to be more diverse.

At the end, the two agreed to have lunch.

To me, this perfectly exemplifies the problem with so many liberals or anyone without an ulterior motive. They go on Fox with an aim of having a legitimate discussion and seeking a meeting of the minds. But Fox almost never has any such goal and almost always has an ulterior motive, as can be seen here. Such guests are actors in Fox’s political theater, which is almost always rigged for its own side.

Sure, it’s nothing personal, as in the case here. But Carlson knew his job and he executed it perfectly. He kept Smith on defense almost the entire 11+ minutes.

READ MY LIPS, LIBERALS: DO NOT GO ON FOX NEWS THINKING YOU ARE GOING ON A CONSERVATIVE VERSION OF CNN OR EVEN MSNBC. YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN PROPAGANDA AND SHOULD BEHAVE ACCORDINGLY.

I happen to believe liberals and Democrats should be clamoring to go on Fox to expose and smack down the agitprop. This is especially true now that Fox has become TrumpTV. If we want to mount any kind of resistance, we must be able to stand up to this.

Watch Smith allow Carlson to present himself as an unbiased, legitimate questioner below, from the January 25, 2017 Tucker Carlson Tonight.

Showing 13 reactions

This is my point. Anyone who goes on Fox should be prepared for what Fox does. It’s not hard to know if you just watch a little of it. But time after time after time, these liberals go waltzing into the lion’s den thinking that they are going to make friends without understanding that lions don’t care how much you make nice with them, looking for ways to destroy their prey is what they do. Period.

Whenever I suffer through Tucker Carlson or anyone else on Fox News, I’m reminded of my favorite Spencer Tracy line from BADDAY AT BLACKROCK: “You’re not only wrong. You’re wrong at the top of your voice.”

I really don’t understand why anyone would go on a show hosted by someone like Tucker Carlson and expect anything other than his usual snideness, bullying and invective.

The only appropriate way to deal with such an invitation is to prepare for Carlson to try the early cheap shot, and have something ready. For example, if he’s going to talk about injecting a moral tone, have a few of his own columns and op-eds ready that you can read back to him, with the date and subject ready to be discussed. Because Carlson has always been known for his false moralizing.

Or you could bring up where Carlson published remarks by Mike Tyson about Sarah Palin and got schooled on that little problem by Greta van Susteren on the air. Where Carlson defended how he was quoting Tyson on the air and discussing a Vice Presidential candidate (whether she was ever that serious of a person is a different issue).

Or if he wants to discuss why someone was trying to engage in affirmative action, which is not racism but actually an attempt to provide opportunities for everyone and not just Caucasians, you could raise Carlson’s constant, snide promotion of bigotry.

There is no reason to allow Carlson to go on the offensive in any of these situations – the only way to handle him is to answer his snide opening with your own question and put him back on his heels. And when he tries to throw another cheap shot, send him another apropos question and put him back on his heels again. Even money says Carlson will frantically end the interview at that point, since he has no chance of pulling an Ingraham and getting his guest to essentially prove his preset hypothesis.

Tucker almost disappointed me here. I had to get deep into this largely boring clip before he started his trademark staccato interruptions, bullying, mocking, etc. all designed to wrestle his ‘fair and balanced’ interview into agreement with his obvious right-wing opinion.

Like most partisan boors on Fox News, when he can’t make headway, Tucker changes the topic as he does here shifting into a prepared attack of Buzzfeed. Still, I found it strange how little push back he gave on what was supposed to be the topic: the Russian ‘Kamikaze’ dossier on Trump. Write me off as partisan but I think Tucker clearly lost that point.

My only disappointment might be Ben Smith didn’t take Tucker’s eventual track and provide endless examples of Fox News being a hypocrite on the topic of using unverified news stories to promote a political agenda. Smith could have filled out the segment easily just mentioning how Fox News routinely covers James O’Keefe as a useful idiot while even admitting they haven’t verified the videos they pimp aren’t doctored.

Tucker returns to form in the end after implicitly agreeing with Smith the dossier is fair game by changing strategies to smear the messenger. To his credit, Smith never gets ruffled and never got stuck stuttering ‘ums and ahs’ under Tucker’s partisan assault.

However, Smith claims to be a viewer of the show – mere flattery? – so it puzzles me why he isn’t a little bit more prepared to bump up his defense a notch when Tucker returned to his trademark pit bull mode. Again, it’s just too easy to turn tables on Tucker by exposing Fox News’ partisan hypocrisy.

Coincidentally some foolish conservative decided to join me for lunch yesterday and immediately bait me with an attack on the ‘liberal msm’ and praise Fox News’ conservative perspective. It took all of 30 seconds for me to shut him up and I’m rounding up. ;-)

David Lindsay, I was flabbergasted. The only thing I can think of is that they are friends. But believe me, that would not (and did not) stop a Foxie from demonizing the left, even if it was his own brother.

Ben Smith should have known waaay better. And it was Tucker Carlson of all people. For a savay liberal, turning the tables on Tucker would have been no problem. Once a liberal has done that, it doesn’t take much extra to get Tucker spitting and stuttering.